The present invention concerns a control configuration for the panel of a vehicle sunroof in which a drive cable which is rigid to pressure and tension is connected via a driver or driver element to the slidable roof panel.
For the purposes of this invention, the term "vehicle sunroof" or "sunroof" shall include not only constructions where the panel, once its rear edge has been lowered to uncover the roof opening, can be slid below the fixed rear roof area, but also "slide-and-lift roofs" where the panel, starting at its closed position, can also be pivoted around a swivelling axis in the vicinity of its front edge so that it is exposed above the fixed roof area.
One known control configuration of the type mentioned at the outset is shown in German Patent Publication No. 34 04 124 A1. In that document, a butt plate is connected, for example using rivets, to the upper side of the driver designated there as a cable clincher. At one end of the butt plate a bearing accepts a pin which engages with a slot of a link of a raising device. When the pin is adjusted along the slot, there follows an adjusting movement of the link either up or down according to the direction of the adjusting movement, and by this means the panel is raised or lowered in the area of its rear edge.
Furthermore, there is a known cable configuration for vehicle sunroofs shown in German Patent Publication No. 32 21 487 A1 whereby a slide mechanism, known there as the rear guide shoe, has attached projections, which allow the slide mechanism to be guided along the cable ducts of a guide rail. A drive cable is mounted with an interference fit to a projection on each side of the panel so that the projection also has the function of a driver for the transmission of cable adjustment movements to the slide mechanism. The slide mechanism or rear guide shoe has a continuous slot-type indentation along its length which is limited on the upper side by two side panels, arranged in fork-type configuration. A bolt is inserted through the side panels, passing through the link slot of a link plate, which engages with the slot-shaped indentation. The link plate is fixed to the clips of a sunroof bracing in such a way as to be height-adjustable.
These known designs have in common the fact that the sliding of the two slide mechanisms, i.e. the rear guide shoes, is aided by drive cables which are driven by a pinion. The pinion is non-rotatably fixed to a drive shaft and meshes with the thread-type wire windings of the cable in the manner of a rack-and-pinion drive. Rotary control of the pinion takes place via a drive device using a hand crank or an electric motor drive. They also have in common the fact that the drive cables are rigidly connected to the slide mechanisms (rear guide shoes) via the drivers and that the transmission of power and motion takes place via pins or bolts in the guide tracks of the links. In turn, the drivers are rigidly connected to the sunroof panel so that there is an overall direct chain of contact of the drive elements from pinion to panel. Only uniform and close meshing between the pinion and the thread-type wire winding of the drive cable can effect even and smooth sliding and/or lifting of the panel.
However, because of production tolerances both in the manufacture of the pinion and in the application of the thread-type wire winding to the cable core assembly, meshing without play is practically impossible. With electric motor drives in particular, where quick-rotating pinions achieve fast panel movements, imprecise meshing can lead to jerky latitudinal cable movements which are directly transmitted to the panel and there, above all when lifting the rear edge of the panel, can cause the panel to vibrate. Similarly, vibrations of the motor armature can be directly transmitted to the sunroof panel. The noise of the motor can also be directly transmitted to the panel via the drive cables and can have a particularly negative effect there as a result of the large resonance surface of the panel. Moreover, investigations have shown that when the drive is not activated a situation can arise where, with imprecise meshing geometry between pinion and drive cable, a section of the wire winding can come to lie between two pinion teeth without direct contact with at least one of the teeth. This means that it is possible that when the pinions are still, minor backward creep of the cable can occur, starting from the panel and transmitted by the drivers to the drive cable. Where the panel is raised, these can, given the flow of air against the panel during the drive or uneven road surfaces, produce vibration of the panel and corresponding noises.
The task of the invention is to provide a control configuration using which faultless, low-noise transmission of power and motion is achieved from the cable drive through to the panel. It is to this end that the present invention has been developed with a view to providing an improved control configuration for the panel of a sunroof.